This fifteenth chapter of Genesis is the record of the Lord making a "covenant" with Abraham, which is known as the "Abrahamic Covenant".

In Genesis 12the Lord made a promise to Abraham that He would make this Gentile from Ur of the Chaldes, the "father of the Jewish people", and would make from His descendants "a nation of Jewish people".

In Genesis 12:7the Lord mentions that the Jews will receive a piece of real estate along with becoming a nation. The fact of the matter is that you cannot be a nation in this world unless you do have a piece of "land" for your nation.

That's the reason for the continuation of the Lord's promise, the covenant, to Abraham in Genesis 15. This covenant is what is called a "blood covenant", that's when the two participants, after having divided a heifer, a goat and a ram, the two making and receiving the "promise", walk between the parts of the slain animals, arm in arm and promising that if either one of them break the covenant the other will be able to divide asunder the person who broke the covenant.

Our passage tells us that the Lord, this appearance was of a pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, that the Lord put Abraham to sleep and He walked among the parts of the animals saying that He is the one responsible for keeping the promise, not Abraham.

This covenant is the first of four covenants the Lord makes with Abraham and his descendants, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Land Covenant, the Davidic Covenant and the New Covenant.

Genesis 15also begins to reveal the land that the Lord will give to the Jewish people. Notice verse 18where we see that at least some portion of the land extends from the "River of Egypt", most likely the Nile River, all the way north to the Euphrates River at Lebanon's northern border.

This passage is only one of thirty-eight passages that describe the "Biblical borders" of Israel, the land that God will give the Jewish people. The thirty-eight passages describe a land, ten times what the Jews have today and will include half of Egypt, all of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait, plus three-quarters of Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Maybe now you can see the reason for the problem in the Middle East. All of this land will only be given to the Jews in the “Kingdom to come”. By the way, when the Lord does give all the land to the Jews that He has promised them, it will be their land forever, even into eternity future.

This is God's promise to Abraham and the Jews. What I love about the Abrahamic Covenant is that the Lord made it to Abraham 4,000 years ago and we see the final fulfillment of the promise, seemingly very close at hand.

The Lord will keep His promise to the Jews and that's why I can believe He will keep His promises to me for eternal life and the future, as spoken of in Bible prophecy. There will be the Rapture when Jesus calls us up to be with Him in the heavens. I know that it will happen, because He is a "promise-keeping" God.

PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank you Lord for keeping Your promises to Abraham, the Jews and to me also.